Jeff in front of Mile High Comics in Denver Colorado.

Cherry Creek State Park Aurora, Colorado September 16 – 23, 2024

We left the James M. Robb Colorado River State Park Island Acres Section Monday, September 16, 2024 (Cindy’s birthday!) around 8:45 am for what was supposed to be a 4 1/2 hour drive to Cherry Creek State Park in Aurora, Colorado.

It actually took us 9 hours.

Pound the Roundabout

We were approaching Vail, Colorado from the west on I-70 and needed to refuel. I prefer to avoid large metropolitan areas for this if I can. One reason is that their gas stations are usually much harder to get into with a 35 foot travel trailer. Another reason is that they are usually busier. If I can, I prefer to stop in an outlying area because the stations are usually larger and less busy. Think Love’s, Pilot or Flying J, for example.

So, Avon, Colorado was the next town we would come to before Vail and I decided to get gas in Avon. When I came off the exit ramp they did not have the usual sign showing which direction to turn for gas so I proceeded to the right. Well, as soon as you make the turn to the right you’re on a roundabout. And I HATE roundabouts. When you’re pulling a 35 foot trailer behind a 20 foot-long truck, roundabouts are NOT your friend!

As I came out of the roundabout there was immediately ANOTHER roundabout! I had to be on the inside lane to make my exit and there was an SUV next to me in the lane to my right. The driver was getting dangerously close to us so I was hugging that inside lane. As we were making the circle my driver’s side front trailer tire hit the roundabout curb and blew a hole the size of my fist in the tire wall while also ripping it off the wheel.

We had to continue driving out of the roundabout and back the way we came to get to a gas station (yeah, they were all to the left of the exit ramp) where I could pull in to change the tire.

Except I couldn’t.

Because I could not find the deep socket I needed for my ratchet wrench to get the spare tire out from underneath the trailer tongue. I searched everywhere to no avail.

So I used my handy AAA app to summon roadside assistance. It took them 90 minutes to arrive and then they had to go back to their shop because they didn’t bring a deep socket set (even though I put that requirement in my message). By the time the guy was done putting on the spare we had been waiting 2 1/2 hours.

Then, as our luck that day would have it, just as we drove past Vail we were stuck in a 90-minute traffic jam back-up on I-70. It was miles-long and puttering along at 5 mph when it was moving. Most of the time it wasn’t.

What this meant was that we hit Denver at the 5 o’clock rush hour. Man I hate big city traffic. We finally arrived at the campground around 5:45 pm. By the time we got everything set up, we were both exhausted from the day.

Accordingly, we have decided that Cindy will no longer observe her birthday. Last year on her birthday we were on the run from Hurricane Lee that made it all the way to where we were in Maine. This year it was running into a roundabout curb and huge traffic jam. So, no more birthdays for Cindy.

Like Pulling Teeth

You may also remember from our last post that Cindy had been suffering from a toothache since the previous Friday in Palisade, Colorado. She kept putting off going to a dentist because she had the same toothache last year and it disappeared right before she went to the dentist.

But Tuesday morning, after another sleepless night due to pain, she finally agreed to go to a dentist. She got an appointment for 9:30 am with a local emergency dentist and we got her there around 9 am.

It turned out she had a massive infection that was actually pushing the tooth in question UP out of the gum. The dentist told her he was glad she decided to come in because the swelling was SO bad it was getting close to obstructing her airway. He gave her THREE shots of anesthesia, pulled the tooth and prescribed Amoxycillin for the infection. When we got back to Nomad she took her medicine, some more Advil and slept for several hours.

Wednesday morning, September 18th, after getting Cindy situated with breakfast and medicine, I left to go get a new trailer tire and wheel. Yeah, when I hit the curb it bent the wheel enough that I just didn’t want to take a chance with it. They had to order the wheel so I had to go back on Thursday to pick them up.

That night, Cindy and I watched the first two episodes of “Agatha All Along” on Disney+. The swelling in her jaw was starting to go down and the pain was not as bad as it had been.

The Circle of Life

Thursday morning we were sitting at the dinette having breakfast. We looked out the window and saw two squirrels playing and chasing each other across the road…not 40 feet from us. Suddenly, there was a blur from the left and before we could register what we saw a coyote had bolted out of the bushes, grabbed one of the squirrels and was trotting back off to the surrounding brush with it in its mouth. The squirrel appeared to be dead as it wasn’t moving. I assume the coyote either killed it instantly or the poor squirrel was in shock and wasn’t moving. Cindy just burst into tears at the sight and even I would admit that seeing “the circle of life” was pretty sobering.

Later we took Bella for a walk around the campground and we could see the coyote looking at us above the tall grass that was up to its neck. Then it saw us looking at it and walked away. As we were walking back to Nomad later, we saw a stag with a huge rack of horns munching on tree leaves near the park’s maintenance area. Cindy said that made her day after the death of the poor squirrel.

I left to go pick up the new tore/wheel, stopped and got Cindy some more soup (it was almost impossible for her to chew without a great deal of pain) and some more Ibuprofen. She took a nice long nap after lunch and that night we watched the latest episode of “Only Murders in the Building” on Hulu.

Mile High Comics

Back in the 80’s, when I was still reading and collecting comic books, I used to see these ads for a place called “Mile High Comics” selling back issues of comic books and comic magazines. Since then I always wanted to visit “Mile High Comics” and Friday, September 20th I filled that bucket list item.

I drove from our campground in Aurora through Denver and arrived at MHC around 10:30 am. This place is in an industrial section of town and is actually housed in a massive warehouse building that is 65,000 square feet in size. It is HUGE! Walking around I would estimate that the back one-third of the warehouse (which is off limits to customers) holds stock they have not been able to grade and put on the main floor.

And that two-thirds that customers CAN walk through is FILLED with comic books, graphic novels, manga, Star Wars merchandise, science fiction, fantasy and Funko items. I spent about 90 minutes just walking through and looking at things. Some I used to own and most I will never own. But what an experience!

When I got back to Nomad we had lunch and then I took Cindy and we drove around Cherry Creek State Park. This park is massive in size. We drove down to the Cherry Creek Reservoir, Butterfly Hill (where World Youth Day was held in 1993), over to the dam and then around the rest of the park.

Aurora Mini-Con

Saturday I attended the Aurora Mini-Con in Aurora, Colorado not far from where we were staying. There wasn’t as much comic book stuff a I would have liked. But I attended a writer’s seminar, went to see Manu Intiraymi (who portrayed Icheb on the “Star Trek: Voyager” TV series in the late 1990’s) be interviewed and answer audience questions, took photos and shot video and generally had a good time.

When I was done I went to a nearby Home Depot to replace that deep socket I lost, went to U-Haul to refill one of our empty propane tanks and got back to Nomad in time to enjoy lunch with Cindy.

Saturday evening it started raining around 6 pm and continued all night into Sunday morning. Sunday was spent mostly resting and reading and getting ready to leave the next morning.

Monday morning, September 23rd, we left Cherry Creek State Park to drive 3 1/2 hours to a Walmart in Colby, Kansas for a 1-night stay. We left there Tuesday morning after buying groceries.

Thanks for following The Wandering Wetheringtons.

1 thought on “Cherry Creek State Park Aurora, Colorado September 16 – 23, 2024”

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